Dr Vince Cable on Group Lotus: “This is the best of British
industry”

Business Secretary Vince Cable visits Group
Lotus and takes time to put the Evora S to the
test at the newly opened race track.

Hot on the heels of the Malaysian Prime
Minister’s visit on Saturday (16 July),
Secretary of State for Business, Vince Cable
took time to visit Group Lotus’ headquarters in
Hethel today. During his tour of the facilities,
Vince Cable was shown the design and styling
studio with the future product line up as well
as the current car production lines.

Commenting on his visit to Group Lotus, Dr
Vince Cable said: “Lotus is a very successful
company, it’s doing very well – exporting a lot
– with a lot of ambition. I’ve seen the new
models and I believe that this is the best of
British industry with very high levels of skill
and engineering quality. Through its cars,
motorsport and engineering divisions Lotus makes
a key contribution to the UK automotive sector
and the wider economy through the exports of its
iconic cars and its world-class design
engineering consultancy.

It wasn’t all hard work and business talk though,
undoubtedly the highlight of his visit was a
chance to show off his driving skills behind the
wheel of an Evora S on Lotus’ Hethel based test
track. Speaking about his track time in the
Evora S he said: “It was absolutely great, it’s
a wonderful car, very manoeuvrable and great fun
and of course very fast. When I was a teenager I
used to go to aerodromes in Yorkshire where the
first generation of Chapman’s Lotus cars
competed with Jim Clarke at the wheel so this is
really a life time ambition I’ve fulfilled here.”

“I welcome the growth and change in Lotus, it’s
a vote of confidence in the UK and in their work
force, they have very high quality people here
doing apprenticeships and they clearly believe
in what they’re doing and they make great
products so I really wish them well.”

Group Lotus Chief Executive Officer Dany Bahar
said: “It’s a pleasure to meet with Dr Cable and
his fellow MPs today, the success of automotive
industry is very important to the British
economy so it’s good to see the support of the
British government here.”

Vince Cable was accompanied by fellow MPs
Richard Bacon (MP for South Norfolk), Norman
Lamb (MP for North Norfolk) and Simon Wright (MP
for Norwich South).